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JAPAN
Apr 15, 2001

Cabinet divided on Lee's visa

Divisions within the government of Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori deepened over whether to issue an entry visa to former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui, with five Cabinet ministers urging the reluctant Foreign Ministry for a quick decision to issue the visa.
BUSINESS
Apr 14, 2001

Let's not limit trade to farm products: Clark

Japan and New Zealand should boost business relations not only in trade of agricultural products but in the areas of environment, technology, forestry and education, visiting New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Friday.
JAPAN
Apr 13, 2001

Whaling should not overshadow trade talks: Clark

While Wellington and Tokyo must agree to disagree over Japan's whaling program, the issue should not impede trade ties, visiting New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Thursday.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 13, 2001

Spat over whaling unlikely to sour business

Helen Clark is not afraid to snap at the hand that helps feed her nation.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 12, 2001

A 'cold war' in the making

The collision between a U.S. surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet over the South China Sea reflects an emerging pattern of confrontation between the United States and China -- a development I noted in this column even prior to that incident.
COMMUNITY
Apr 8, 2001

How to escape the urban grind

After a grueling week at the office, we naturally look forward to getting outand about on the weekend. For diversions, Japan's major cities have it all, from art exhibitions and the latest movies to shopping and sporting events. Problem is, who wants to fight thesame workday-commute crowds at museums,...
LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND
Apr 8, 2001

A toast to wine's new world

As recently as the early '90s, consumers in Japan needed perseverance to track down good, affordable wines. Wine was still perceived as a special-occasion beverage, requiring the intervention of an expert in formal attire. Top Tokyo restaurant wine lists revealed an obsession with French trophy wines,...
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 7, 2001

Troussier tries to put a positive spin on 5-0 defeat to France

Open your eyes, face reality and work on what you are missing from your game -- that was Philippe Troussier's message to Japan following his team's 5-0 defeat at the hands of France on March 24.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 7, 2001

Historian battles to redeem the past

JAPAN'S PAST, JAPAN'S FUTURE: One Historian's Odyssey, by Saburo Ienaga. Translated by Richard H. Minear. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001, pp. 202, $19.95. For the past four decades, Saburo Ienaga has crusaded as the conscience of Japan, fighting to protect intellectual freedom and challenge...
SOCCER / J. League
Apr 6, 2001

Super League seen as boost to Asian soccer

Asian Football Confederation general secretary Peter Velappan said in an interview with The Japan Times that the AFC is aiming to boost the sport in the region with the launch of a new Asian Super League and also hopes to bring next year's World Cup cohosts closer together with the establishment of a...
LIFE / Lifestyle / JET STREAM
Apr 6, 2001

Opening the doors to the world

"How many Islamic people are there in the world?" Andrea Landis asks a class of 11th-graders at Ohara High School.
JAPAN
Apr 5, 2001

Direct talks open with U.S. over dropping of Kyoto Protocol

Japan on Wednesday began direct communication with the United States over Washington's decision to abandon the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a treaty aimed at curbing global warming.
JAPAN
Apr 4, 2001

Disputed history text approved

After scores of revisions, the Education Ministry on Tuesday authorized a junior high school history textbook that has been roundly criticized by Asian countries charging that it glossed over Japan's wartime history.
JAPAN
Apr 3, 2001

Income gap on rise as middle class deteriorates

Various data show that the income gap is widening in Japan, which has long prided itself on being a nation of equality, free of class struggle.
COMMENTARY
Apr 2, 2001

Close the book on censorship

Since the end of World War II, the censorship of history textbooks in Japan has raised political and diplomatic issues. Recently, a social-studies textbook edited by a nationalist group again stirred controversy, offending the Chinese and South Koreans.
CULTURE / Books
Apr 1, 2001

Schilling reels in a decade of film

CONTEMPORARY JAPANESE FILM, by Mark Schilling. Weatherhill, 1999, 399 pp., $24.95 (paper). Americans flock to subtitled films the way the Swedes flock to church. That is, hardly ever. So when Asian films make their way into the theaters of U.S. shopping malls, it is no small feat.
COMMENTARY
Mar 29, 2001

Time to act is running out

The captain of a sinking cruise ship was trying to persuade his male passengers to let women and children board the lifeboats first. But he quickly learned he'd have to customize his pitch according to the nationalities on board. The Englishmen were easy; the captain simply appealed to their sense of...
COMMENTARY
Mar 27, 2001

The limits of public opinion

LONDON -- Speaking to the House of Commons on Nov. 11, 1947, Winston Churchill said, "No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
EDITORIALS
Mar 27, 2001

A small step forward in Irkutsk

Both Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori and Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed the achievements made at their talks Sunday in Irkutsk, Siberia. Assessing the same meeting, however, the two leaders inadvertently acknowledged publicly that they were giving different interpretations of the talks on the...
COMMENTARY / THE VIEW FROM NEW YORK
Mar 26, 2001

Never say you've apologized too much

When Ursula Smith, my publisher friend up in Vermont, wrote to say, "I can't close without offering some (futile) form of apology, as one national to another, for that unfortunate accident off Hawaii," I said there was no need to apologize to me. It was an accident, and I wasn't too clear about the meaning...
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2001

LDP panel pushes for collective defense

A panel of the Liberal Democratic Party called Friday for a change in government's interpretation of the Constitution so that Japan can engage in collective defense to reinforce its alliance with the United States in the Asia-Pacific region.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2001

Mori-Putin summit expectations low

After failing to meet the end-of-2000 target for resolving a territorial dispute and signing a peace treaty, Japan and Russia will hold their first summit this year in Russia's Irkutsk on Sunday, during which Japan hopes to set a future direction for resolving the decades-old row.
JAPAN
Mar 24, 2001

Japanese shortwave services fading out in cyberspace age

For Michiteru Takagi, 76, Sunday will signal the end of a daily ritual he has practiced for 42 years.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 23, 2001

Mori planning major overhaul for BayStars

It's been said that life is all about truth and time. Well, truth be told, new Yokohama BayStars manager Masaaki Mori would prefer to spend as much of the time he has left on Earth doing what he loves most -- working in baseball.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 23, 2001

Dragons' Bunch looking to avoid sophomore jinx

Chunichi Dragons pitcher Mel Bunch will be out to prove his rookie year in Japan pro baseball last season was no fluke. The right-hander led the Central League with 14 victories, threw a no-hitter early in the year and turned in a superb 2.98 earned run average in helping the Dragons to a strong second-place...

Longform

Sumadori Bar on Shibuya Ward's main Center Gai street targets young customers who prefer low-alcohol drinks or abstain altogether.
Rethinking that second drink: Japan’s Gen Z gets ‘sober curious’